42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support

Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by yesfitz on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:08PM (#48938054)

I went to the source[1] referenced by the article and found the exact question. It took about 90 seconds.

"How financially independent you currently feel from your parents (meaning you could support yourself without them if needed)"

1: https://news.northwesternmutual.com/planning-and-progress-st...

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by flumes_whims_ on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:21PM (#48938217)

According to that 17% of boomers+ are dependent on their parents. Just looking at boomers, that is around 70 on average. How many people that age even have parents still alive, let alone financially depend on them?

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by pessimizer on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:28PM (#48938298)

I'd speculate (based on a study I've recently been made aware of) about 17%.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by busterarm on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:32PM (#48938360)

Boomers can be trust fund babies too.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by vel0city on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:04PM (#48938812)

Not only that, if you're a single boomer with a living parent and neither of you have much other incomes its probably better to cohabitate in that old family house that was paid off in the 90s and share what little benefits you both receive.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by busterarm on Saturday July 18, 2026 @02:33PM (#48960813)

I think people also underestimate what a serious obligation this can be.

I'm taking care of an elderly parent with dementia who cannot afford the care that they need. It costs me significant time and money. It has completely stalled my career. I'm not actually getting anything from them and it's worse than taking care of a newborn baby.

It's interesting because I'm around the age where most of my peers are dealing with something like this and it's something I'd never heard talked about seriously even once my whole life. I was totally unprepared for it and it seems to be a thing that large numbers of people are quietly suffering with. It has given me a lot of empathy for people who I may have judged as underperformers, etc.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by vel0city on Sunday July 19, 2026 @04:59PM (#48971609)

It's a story I've seen a lot. Proper care for those people in such situations is a hard full-time job on its own, and something we in society are mostly undervaluing.

We really suck at late stage life planning and discussions.

I'm sorry for all the difficult times you've experienced so far and the hard times to come. It's a lot to give. Be sure to look for what benefits you/they quality for. Be sure to still spend time to ensure you stay mentally healthy as well.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by kristianp on Thursday July 16, 2026 @05:37PM (#48940602)

The youngest boomers are 62 this year. Not many would have living parents. Are you referring to inheritance they may have gotten?

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by butlike on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:27PM (#48938283)

I don't know, that one doesn't seem as benign as your making it out to be. I would say if you're having your parents subsidize your phone bill you're still not technically living on your own.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by lattalayta on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:14PM (#48938942)

Cell phone companies incentivize this, though. It's a better deal for both the parents and children (often 50%) with no difference in service

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by anthonypasq on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:20PM (#48939028)

theres plenty of people making 6 figures at 25 that still have their parents pay their phone bill because they get a family discount. i dont get your point

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by dclowd9901 on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:59PM (#48938748)

Yet, with 37% of people being only a $400 surprise cost away from financial destitution, you might be completely wrong.

https://www.investopedia.com/here-s-how-many-americans-can-t...

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by Legend2440 on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:33PM (#48939187)

That's not what your linked article says.

37% of survey respondants say they would need to use a credit card to cover a $400 expense. They wouldn't be destitute, they just don't immediately have the cash.

It also cites another study that put the number much lower, at 8%.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by burningChrome on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:45PM (#48938544)

>> Still being on your parent's family phone plan doesnt mean youd be destitute if they werent helping you out.

I think there's some important things like this that should be considered. In the late 90's early aughts, I didn't need a laptop, smartphone and 24/7 internet access with 1GB download speeds or half the technological stuff kids need these days to be a contributing member of society.

Now those are all standard items for kids growing up. When I was in college in 2000, life was pretty easy. I paid $350/month for rent, cable, heat and landline phone. That was literally my entire financial costs for the month. Beer, going out to the bars, random things here and there? Easy to cover when you're making $10/hour working 35 hours a week.

Now? Your basic needs will consistently run $1,500 for all of the stuff you need to function into today's society. Having your parents covering some of that in order for you to live on your own I think is not abnormal any more.

As a Gen Xer, we had it really good. I've started to realize kids these days are put at a massive disadvantage because we require everything to be accessible via the internet and smartphones.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:49PM (#48938606)

> $350/month [ 2000 ]

> $1500/month [ 2026 ]

CPI inflation would suggest that the current cost ought to be about $692. So if it really costs $1500 to cover the things you've mentioned (noticeabley absent: student loans, health insurance, car payments) then either our society is deeply fucked or your list has changed or your estimates are wrong or your memory is wrong or all of the above.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by cliglot on Thursday July 16, 2026 @02:53PM (#48938654)

> CPI inflation would suggest that the current cost ought to be about $692.

Rent alone will probably blow that. I live in a burnt out rust belt shithole city and I’m struggling to understand how rent is this high. I pay a good bit more than $692 to live in a slum just outside the ghetto right now and I have to feel gracious for that. It’s closer to what I paid in a decent middle class neighborhood in Florida. That was only 5-6 years ago.

This is in a city where the best people can say about it is: “well it’s cheaper”.

Hell when I lived in South Carolina from 2017-2019. My apartment there was closer to the stated inflation figure, but this was for a place that regularly flooded the downstairs neighbors and left me for weeks without AC in the peak of summer because of careless management.

Still not as bad as business rents. I’ve seen downtown business close because they’re being made to be $7000 for a shitty 100 year old property surrounded by condemned properties.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:01PM (#48938777)

Let me suggest the problem: CPI inflation suggests a rough doubling of basic living costs. How many jobs can you point to that are paying 2x in 2026 what they were paying in 2000?

There are some. But the data seems to suggest that the majority do not.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by nonameiguess on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:37PM (#48939220)

This posted while I was still in the middle of my other rant, but when I was doing the four guys in one apartment thing putting myself through community college, my job was overnight janitor at Knott's Berry Farm and paid $6.50 an hour. Minimum wage in California is now $16.90, so that at least is more than double.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by tpmoney on Thursday July 16, 2026 @07:52PM (#48941806)

After the big corrections entry level jobs had to do during and after COVID, I think it's probably more than you think. As an example, the BLS says in 2000 the mean hourly wage for "Food preparation and serving related" jobs was $7.72 / hour [1]. As of May 2025, they list the median hourly wage (yes median and mean aren't the same, but for this purpose, I don't think the differences would affect the overall point that much) at $16.85 / hour [2]

Likewise for "Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance", we went from $9.41/hour to $18.12 / hour.

Though admittedly not every field saw such gains. "Sales and related" didn't do quite as well, going from $13.46 to just $18.52. "Office and Administrative" did a bit better going from $12.64 to $22.81, but that's still a bit under the 2x mark. "Construction and extraction" also missed the 2x mark by a bit, going from $16.56 to $28.63.

Still the numbers I think aren't quite as dire as the vibes make it feel right now.

[1]: https://www.bls.gov/oes/bulletin_2000.pdf [2]: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ocwage.pdf

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by nonameiguess on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:35PM (#48939200)

The last time I can remember a reasonably low rent payment, I was paying $300 a month in the year 2000 in Fullerton, CA. That was sharing a two-bedroom apartment between four guys, two of whom lived in the kitchen and living room and paid slightly less, one of whom was a speed addict and eventually got us kicked out and our lease terminated, which left me homeless briefly living in my car. No car payment because I'd bought it in high school for $260 at a sheriff's auction, but roughly $200 or in insurance plus gas money, mostly because commuting anywhere near LA/Orange county uses a lot of fuel. I was still on my parent's health insurance because you could do that until 25 as long as you were in school, and I wasn't paying back student loans because again, still in school. I was also 6'2" and regularly didn't crack 140 lbs because I was eating bulk oatmeal dry. I don't remember the cost of the shared phone bill, but I do remember it was under my name and that speed freak never paid his share, the bill eventually went to collections, and wrecked my credit for several years, which didn't really matter ultimately because I wasn't borrowing any money back then anyway other than the student loans.

I don't know a whole lot of 20 year-olds but certainly hear on the Internet all the time how hard it is for them. I'm extremely skeptical anyone living quite as shittily as I was 26 years ago is really paying 4.5 times as much for the privilege. My 24 year-old niece pays a lot more in rent than I did, but she also lives alone a mile from the beach in San Diego. In a shack, but it's still a hell of a lot nicer than anything I had.

In any case, I got a few bucks here and there from my parents, but they didn't have much when I was young and ultimately helped out my younger sisters a lot more. Cost of teenage parents, I guess. I was the test run. I still turned out fine and they've mostly relied on me in the past 15 years, which seems oddly missing from this survey. If we're concerned about adults not being self-sufficient, surely relying on your kids or siblings or anyone else at all is just as bad as relying on your parents.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:50PM (#48939390)

Again, I suspect that the problem isn't the size of your rent payment, it's the size of your paycheck (which is not your fault, but that of your employer, our government(s) and The System (TM)).

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by iwontberude on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:01PM (#48938781)

CPI is a bullshit number. CPI indexes Social Security COLAs, TIPS payouts, tax brackets, and federal pensions. Every 0.1% shaved off CPI saves the Treasury real money on its indexed obligations.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:19PM (#48938998)

Please tell me more.

It is acknowledged as not covering some costs that affect many people severely. But that does not by itself make it a bullshit number.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by inigyou on Thursday July 16, 2026 @05:26PM (#48940474)

Prices have been increasing much faster than CPI for years and decades. I'd say this suggests there's something wrong with CPI, but HN would violently disagree.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by c22 on Friday July 17, 2026 @01:34PM (#48950011)

> In the late 90's early aughts, I didn't need a laptop, smartphone and 24/7 internet access with 1GB download speeds or half the technological stuff kids need these days...

The explicit hypothesis presented is that the list has changed.

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Re:42% of adults rely on their parents for financial support by alphawhisky on Thursday July 16, 2026 @03:13PM (#48938927)

I think that the vast majority of people who are "relying" on their parents for finances actually belong to the upper class. Family Feudalism has bred two consecutive generations of entitled shitheads, and these people are gonna have the wheel soon (if not already) in the US politically. This has concerning potential consequences.

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